The 'maja', conceived since the nineteenth century as an accurate representation of the popular and national woman of the previous century, was really and basically a theatrical figure used by authors like Ramón de la Cruz as part of the reformist discourse that pretended to forge a new relation between the sexes. The 'maja' was a moral type embodied with the negatives values of the new virtuous femininity that was being prescribed for the high-class women. In turn, the 'maja' was construed during the process as object of desire for those men, whose sexuality was algo being regulated and who had to demonstrate their superiority over the women and the popular classes. The 'majismo' -a high-class Spanish fashion in the last decades of the century involved in dress and act as 'majos' and 'majas'- was, more than a nationalist and traditionalist reaction, a kind of moral and sexual transgres...
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The 'maja', conceived since the nineteenth century as an accurate representation of the popular and national woman of the previous century, was really and basically a theatrical figure used by authors like Ramón de la Cruz as part of the reformist discourse that pretended to forge a new relation between the sexes. The 'maja' was a moral type embodied with the negatives values of the new virtuous femininity that was being prescribed for the high-class women. In turn, the 'maja' was construed during the process as object of desire for those men, whose sexuality was algo being regulated and who had to demonstrate their superiority over the women and the popular classes. The 'majismo' -a high-class Spanish fashion in the last decades of the century involved in dress and act as 'majos' and 'majas'- was, more than a nationalist and traditionalist reaction, a kind of moral and sexual transgression in the context of the progress of the new discourses.